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Mickeyduck's machines

Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2013 1:26 pm
by mickeyduck
Well I've decided maybe I'd start throwing the occasional thing in this section in case it helps anyone later. Or in case anyone throws good ideas my way - cos there's a lot of folk on this forum with a lot of good valuable knowledge. And keeping these wicked wee cars going is half the point of this forum and club. :wink:

I bought my first AW because my daily driver back then was costing me $120 a week for gas just to get to work and back. That was about 10 years ago, before the price of gas started going up something horrible! It's well over twice the price today. Here's the beastie I drove back then. Engine modded to Bathurst XU1 spec except it was running a Holley as I never did get around to fitting the triple carbs. Went real well (0-100kmh in about 6 seconds, top speed about 140mph = about 220kmh) but man was it thirsty:
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I needed to find a cheaper way of getting to work and back but I didn't want to settle into anything too boring. Jappas made sense for the sake of fuel efficiency and reliability. I'd have bought a bike cos I used to love the things but these days I reckon the Auckland drivers are too crazy and I have a family to live for now eh. This was my ride just before I got married:
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Anyway I went looking for a reasonable Jap car. Took an AW for a test drive, put it around a corner and couldn't stop grinning. Bloody go-kart. Sweet. And right away my gas bill dropped to $30 a week. A quarter of the fuel...! :D Here's the Blu-2 my first MR2, a J-spec '85 auto NA tin-top (if you ever get an auto NA be sure to convert it to manual cos unlike the auto SC they are real slow off the mark.)
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The Blu-2 got me to work and back for about 5 years and proved to be a reliable and cost effective means of daily transport. In addition it always put a smile on my dial and added a thing to look forward to where the daily grind was concerned. If you have to commute, do it in something that's fun to drive as well as economical right? :wink:

About the only thing that ever went wrong with the Blu-2 was the fuel pump died. Thankfully it did so after being parked in the car park at work. Simply wouldn't start up. Beats crapping out half way across an intersection! I went to a mate's workshop to drop out the tank and replace the pump. Unfortunately he missed one of the weeny breather hoses when hooking things back up. The car caught fire as I pulled into the underground car park at work next to my boss' $150,000 X5 Beamer. A wee jet of fuel had spurted out of the tube and hit the exhaust as I came around the last corner. As I parked it up I noticed smoke coming out of the engine lid. Opened her up and there's a wee ball of flame under the engine. Emptied my weeny extinguisher but still there was fire. I raced up 4 stories, grabbed the server room extinguisher, raced back down and after jacking up the rear of the car I managed to put out the fire - basically the plastic under-body trays were alight. Real hard to put out, that plastic stuff.

Managed to rip off all the burnt bits and replace them, and the old thing continued to do me well for some time thereafter.

Getting involved with the club and going on runs meant I really needed another MR2 as well. That way I could drive one with one son as passenger, and my wife Michelle could drive the other with the other lad. So I bought another AW. Also automatic but this time a supercharged 1987 T-top. MUCH faster off the line eh. 8)
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No no hang on a sec, that ain't right. Try this:
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Maybe a year after buying the T-top I discovered some nasty rust in the Blu-2's passenger side B-pillar so I parked it up. Ripping things apart revealed much worse rust than I'd imagined, hiding under the rubbers and the plastic etc. So I stripper and wrecked her and sent her off to the crushers.
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Here's documentation of the rust for the reference of anyone looking to buy an AW, so you know where to look:

http://mr2.org.nz/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=1&page=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Bye-bye Blu-2. :cry:



The T-top beastie proved a bit more problematic than the Blu-2 but I love the thing. Much quicker than the NA being both supercharged and having an overboost pulley (gave better than 14lb boost on the gauge). Cruising around with the lid off in summer's a buzz too. A couple of stories for you...

One of the first things ever happened was I'm driving home at night on the motorway when there's an almighty bang and a huge cloud of white stuff in my rear vision mirror. I slap the shift lever forward into neutral and pull over to the shoulder as fast as I can. Throw open the engine lid and woah...! Huge cloud of steam coming out, the thing's boiled over. Belts have gone, not there anymore. In fact the crank pulley is half way off...!!! :shock: Turns out that when someone had fitted the overboost crank pulley they'd not got the keyway lined up right and it had munted itself badly as they forced the pulley on by just doing up the retaining bolt. Muppets. So as I'm driving it the crank pulley had slipped around on the crank and undone itself... After a tow home and a bit of work she was all good again though.

Another thing that went wrong with the T-top was the front fuse box. One day it simply caught fire. Turns out that the wee wiper-washer fluid tubes have a T-junction right over the fuse box and it was dripping. The fuse box didn't have a lid so the drips had been landing on the fuse holders, one of which eventually corroded, and the increased resistance made it get way hot and catch fire. As the fuse box is kinda knitted into the loom I've not replaced it, but instead simply rejigged things so the destroyed fuse holder is kinda fudged back together using spade connectors. Works fine, never been a problem since. But one day I oughtta try to swap out the fuse box...
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The T-top's body is pretty sound except the front bumper iron is totally rotten. I have a new replacement but have yet to fit it. Really want to find a new outer skin first as well, and decent condition brackets for under the bumper (might need to make them). Plus the lip is in about 6 pieces and held together with maybe 100 layers of duct tape. If it wasn't for the ultra-low suspension I'd be tempted to fit an aerotech lip. But not when they're made of figlass, it'd last all of 5 minutes.
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I put the T-top around Hampton Downs a couple of years ago. It was a lot of fun and went real well...

http://mr2.org.nz/phpbb3/viewtopic.php? ... s&start=64" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Almost at the end of the day as I hurtled over the pit straight hump at 180kmh, plunging down into the first hard right where the track drops right away from under you, I glanced in my mirror to suss where that GTR Skyline had got too. And all I could see (again) was white. Meh. Bloody thing's boiling again! :evil: Gary from Playday thought I'd caught fire and came whizzing around in his truck but thankfully his extinguisher wasn't required. Just a tow back to the pits. Waited for the old girl to cool down then topped her back up, bled the coolant and trundled off home. No worries...

But why the blazes doe it keep doing this? She'd boiled on us when we took two 2's north to Russel as well. Bah. Something ain't right there eh.

Oh - one other crazy thing: after Hamptons the headlights refuse to retract. My boss said I'd scared the old thing too much and she was stuck with eyes wide in fright. --> :shock: Ha ha! :lol: I've tried several retractor relays that all work fine in my other AW so maybe it's corrosion in the pins in the loom's plug or something? I'll sort it one day but have simply wound the lights down by hand for the last couple of years. :roll:

The T-top did a really nasty boil on us coming back from a run about a year ago so she's now parked up in the shed while I gradually pull it to bits to determine if it's a blown head gasket. Hey, she's WAY too much fun to give up on eh. My oldest boy's nearly old enough to drive now and he can out-pace me in go-karts so might end up being his wee project yet...
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There's an amazing number of things to remove if you're trying to get the head of a 4AGZE. I should've pulled the engine out. LOL.
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And that's only got me this far:
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Too good a car to give up on eh. Done me well as a daily driver for nearly 5 years as well as given me a LOT of enjoyment. Anything that can add a smile every time you go near it is worth having. :D

I love its paint job too, especially since I did the roof black and swapped the wing mirrors for black ones so they kinda vanish... I fitted grey and black cloth seats cos I like the looks of them with the car's paint job and I find them more comfy than the velour ones. And I really love those mags, even if they are Mazda-Speed and a bit scruffy. Note the reflective stuff I added to the centre caps so I'd not get T-boned at night so easily... Car's jacked right up in this shot BTW.
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Here's to getting the T-top going again sometime. Love it.
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Re: Mickeyduck's machines

Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2013 1:54 pm
by Benckj
Good write-up with plenty of stories witrh pics. Might have to do something myself someday.

With all the AW toys you might have to move up to a SW someday. Not as fun in twisties but a tad more room + comfort.

Re: Mickeyduck's machines

Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2013 2:41 pm
by mickeyduck
Benckj wrote:Good write-up with plenty of stories witrh pics. Might have to do something myself someday.

With all the AW toys you might have to move up to a SW someday. Not as fun in twisties but a tad more room + comfort.
Ha ha yeah took a friend's SW Gen3 turbo for a small blat a week or so ago, considering doing exactly that Jim. Mainly cos they don't rust so easy (Auckland is REAL bad for rust) and I really want to turn my Stripe into a project, fix her up. It's rust free and I want to keep it that way, seeing as an AW in its condition is now worth nearly twice what I paid for it 5 years ago.

Here's a wee funny thing, while driving my T-top. Went well with the overboost eh.



Oops. Hey, it's a 70kmh zone just there... Fun wee beastie though, love it.
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OK back to the next chapter...

The demise and departure of old Blu-2 led to the acquisition of Stripe. 1988 J-spec tin top manual supercharger.
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I bought it off a bloke over the shore - and was soon informed by my mate Davo (Rocketman) that it used to belong to his mate Isaac. So this is a club car from way back. Anyway she wasn't running right and I had to play with the ignition timing and idle mix a bit to stop it from conking out every time I stopped.

It was nice to have two 2's again for runs and family outings too.
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I was lacking in garaging at the time and the T-top lived inside so this new beast was parked out in the weather. Didn't drive it for about a week, then discovered the clutch had seized solid. Turned out there was a hole the size of your fist in the top of the gearbox bell housing area - rain had got in and corroded things so the clutch had seized. I had the box pulled out and welded up and a new clutch fitted. Turns out the new clutch is way too soft and it annoys me no end but otherwise we were back in action. However the gearbox was horrible shifting down from 3rd to 2nd, so I scored another E51 box from Taupo. We took the T-top down there to collect it and drove home with a boot full of toolbox and a frunk full of E51. Not the easiest thing to get outta the frunk by the way cos you're leaning over something horrible and they're a lot heavier than a C52. Anyway the newer box featured a tight as LSD so that made driving a bit different. The car would literally hop around tighter corners cos the diff would not slip. It's only since recently changing to Redline MT-90 gear oil that I have a box that shifts perfectly smoothly and quickly, while having a LSD that works right too. I can't recommend that gear oil highly enough.

When I was wrecking the Blu-2 I decided to swap the interior from it into this new one. Basically the new car had that horrible dark blue plastic interior - YUK. And a lot of it was cracked and broken, including the actual dash which had a giant split right up the middle. I'm still looking for some black facelift door cards for her but I much prefer the black interior it has now, as well as those sweet black and blue cloth seats from my first AW.


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One of the first things that happened to me was I was bumbling along in a 55kmh train of traffic on Universal Drive in Henderson when a large flat-bed truck decided to pull out and do a U-turn right in front of me. He must have been watching his mirrors and never saw me, being in a dark blue car. I hit the brakes a bit too hard and found myself sliding sideways at the truck. Seeing the tray fast coming to take my head clean off, I got off the brakes and on the throttle, threw the car towards the kerb, flicked it around fish-tail manner past the back of the truck as it chugged off to the centre of the road. Whew! That weekend I painted a big white stripe right up the bonnet to help people see me coming. I also added some reflective stuff to the centre caps on my mags so I'd not get T-boned at night:
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Re: Mickeyduck's machines

Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2013 3:29 pm
by mickeyduck
OK, time to document one or two things that have needed doing on Stripe.

One night about maybe 18 months ago I was driving home from work, got about 5km into the hour-long journey and the car just died. No electrical power. Nix. Couldn't even put the park lights on, parked at the side of the road with a midnight-blue (invisible) AW in Onehunga in the dark on a wet night. That's why it now has reflector stuff here and there... Anyway...

After waiting for 4 hours (no kidding) for an AA tow truck to turn up, I got it home.

Subsequent investigation revealed the dizzy had been leaking oil which dripped down into the alternator. Which of course then destroyed itself. Carbon brushes don't like oil eh.

I didn't have a spare dizzy ready to go or a reco kit for one, and Stripe had become my daily driver after T-top had boiled one time too many. So I had to get it going again. I did have a spare alternator but it was just another old thing that I had no idea what nick it was in. I removed my dead alt and stripped both it and the spare one down, then built one up out of the two. That left me with the problem of how to stop a recurrence with that leaky dizzy.

I got myself an old coffee tin and made it into a kind of hat to cover the alt and guide the oil safely away from it. A bit bizarre perhaps but hey it worked a treat and cost me b.a. Full documentation of the exercise is here:

http://mr2.org.nz/phpbb3/viewtopic.php? ... tor#p91160" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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I have just a week ago got around to kitting two dizzy's so I'll document that too some time soon.
Suffice to say the dizzy is now a lot healthier and it's not leaking oild anymore.
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OK here's the dizzy rebuild thread for anyone needing to do it:

http://mr2.org.nz/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=10906" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Re: Mickeyduck's machines

Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2013 3:53 pm
by mickeyduck
Yesterday I decided it was time to fix my dropped drivers door, and clean any crap out of the front guards.

I'd thought it'd be a mission cos at a glance it looks like you need to remove the guards which implies removing the front bumper... bit of a mission. Thankfully my mate John the Norseman (Fevil / Redmist) informed me all I needed do was pull the bottom bolt out of the guard then bend it outwards a bit. Worked a treat.

Pulled off the side skirts, got the bottom bolt out of the guards as well as the screw that secures the inner guard plastic, then cracked off the door hinge bolts, used a jack to raise the door and all came right.

Cleaning stuff outta there was interesting. The car's had a smack on the right front some time and been repaired. One reason the front bumper iron's so good I guess. Anyway there was almost no crap in the drivers side, but I removed an entire shovel full of dirt from the passenger side. Thankfully there's only the beginnings of surface rust in there as yet so I scrubbed it all with a dishbrush then hit it with CRC and grease. Might use fishoilene next time. Anyway here's a few pics for reference.

As I've seen way too many AW's die from rotten base of their A-pillars I'd recommend anyone with an AW do this too, maybe each summer. Doesn't take long eh.
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A footnote for AW11Rob who felt under the rear guards at Atiu and told me they are rotting... No they're not, it's the metal reinforcing plate inside the rubber mud flaps (some AW's had plastic ones, not reinforced). Anyway just for the record, in this instance I'm glad you're mistaken mate:
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Re: Mickeyduck's machines

Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2013 4:04 pm
by mickeyduck
One of the funniest things that ever happened to me in an AW:

Driving to work, went around the tight left hander to go over the motorway at Ellerslie, coming from Tecoma St. Floored it as always (this was in my first AW, the Blu-2) cos it's such a cool corner.

Two young fellas running along on the far side of the road. One of them sees me roaring around the corner up the hill. He runs straight at me and jumps clean over the car, front to back.

Out of it. Wow. That really was some freaky shit. The fact I was down-hill of him doubtless helped, but still. Wish I had my dashcam back then. :mrgreen:

Re: Mickeyduck's machines

Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2013 4:05 pm
by mickeyduck
Some folk say an MR2 isn't a practical car.

I once transported 97 bricks from the shore back to west Auckland in my NA Blu-2. Just in the frunk and the boot. Not a problem. :mrgreen:
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And there's enough space for me to take a BBQ on every run we do: :lol:
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Re: Mickeyduck's machines

Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2013 4:09 pm
by born disturbed
Epic write up man, nice read on a sunday arvo :)

You are certainly right about needing to enjoy your daily driver, crappy cars make for a crappy existance. Your love for these little go karts will keep them going for many years ahead mate 8)

Re: Mickeyduck's machines

Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2013 4:30 pm
by mickeyduck
Ha ha thanks Jared. :D

Back when I had Blu-2 I did a trip to Edgecumbe to score a van load of AW parts. Brought back an entire AW, except chassis, wheels and glass. The car had left a gravel road at over 100kmh, gone through a ditch, a fence, flipped end over end three times then rolled repeatedly before coming to a stop. The driver's mate was following and witnessed the crash. The driver suffered 12 stitches to his scalp and a compressed neck vertebrae. He walked away. Check out just how strong these wee cars are if push comes to shove:
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Reminds me of another wee story about how strong these cars are. On my way to work one morning just after I scored Stripe, I was chugging along the long straight bit between Blockhouse Bay and Lynfield, up the top of the hill, when three young idiots in a Subaru decided to play silly buggers. They dropped back about 50 metres then floored it and hit the brakes to slide to a stop just behind my rear bumper. The 5th time they did this I had had enough so I hit the brakes as hard as I could just as they slid to a stop. BANG.

Visions of the back of my AW now munted, I slowed to a stop hoping to block them in next to a traffic island, the last one before you go down the hill to Lynfield. They freaked and shot past the traffic island on the wrong side of the road through the oncoming traffic, and took off down the hill. I followed them down and into a side street on the left where I managed to bottle them up.

The young git stammered away at me about his brakes being bad, so I informed him the only bad thing was his idiot driving. Having baled the three of them up and being in no mood to tolerate any more idiocy he then tells me there's no damage to my car. Well blow me down, there wasn't either. Just a slight indent in the foam in the middle of my rear bumper. So I let them limp off home, front of the Subaru a little less sound and hopefully with its driver a little wiser than before.

Anyway, good strong wee things these cars. Sweet. 8)

Re: Mickeyduck's machines

Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2013 9:30 pm
by mickeyduck
Got yakking with my mate John aka Fevil aka Redmist (the names of his AW's) from up north on the weekend. He struck upon an idea to help get my dead T-top AW going again. And I like it a lot...

I recently bought a completely rotten 1989 NA AW. Not only is it rotten, it's also hit the kerb thanks to crap tyres on a wet road. Anyway, despite the fact the engine oil is almost not there at all and looks more like tar than oil I've run the motor up and had a careful listen to it and I think it's actually ok. Being an '89 NA it's the one with the red lettering on it. Not a "red-top" which is the next generation of the 4AGE but it's basically the NA version of the supercharged AW's 4AGZE. Same block, crank, rods, head etc as far as I'm aware. The difference is it has flat top pistons not dished, therefore 9.4:1 compression not 8.0:1 like the supercharged AW motor.

OK, so the Levin version of the 4AGZE they upped the compression to the same as the NA 9.4:1 and they upped the boost a wee bit from the AW11SC's 8lb boost to 10lb boost. Result was about 20 or 30 more horsepower. So if I take the '89 NA engine (long block) and bolt all my supercharger stuff to it, it oughtta give me almost as much grunt as a Levin engine. Same compression, 2lb less boost. If that runs ok I'll fit my overboost pulley too - then at 14lb boost it oughtta develop a fair bit more grunt than a Levin engine eh? But will it survive...???

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_A_engine#4A" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I've read a few threads on the net where folk have fitted SC stuff to an NA motor and the results have been good even when thrashed daily for several years - I've yet to find a thread where someone used an overboost pulley too - but I think it does need trying out.

So my mate Jared aka born disturbed is rocking over Sunday to help me rip the NA engine out so I can begin some transplant surgery... Mu ha ha...! :twisted:

This could be fun!
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Re: Mickeyduck's machines

Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2013 9:53 pm
by flying_wedge
Before I swapped in the 2zz from Nick's old AW this is the engine setup I had.
A 7-rib largeport 4age with the ~9.4:1 compression ratio with bolt on supercharger, running a 4agze ecu and a spliced loom. W2A intercooler too. Went very well for what it was. I drove that engine for 30,000 k's like that without fault. And not many of those were 'easy' kilometers, with many open track days and club day sprint events. And general hard driving.
Always thought about a larger pulley - even bought a new T3 14lb pulley in preparation, just never swapped it. Perhaps in hindsight I was a little reserved in not wanting to make the engine pop.
Sold that engine on complete for $700 as a good runner, hopefully still running just as sweet.

Good choice, good gains over a standard 4a. Suggest lsd if you have one handy? Also suggest c52 box as the gear ratios are just that much better than e51.

It really is the win win combo - normal compression for responsive driving on light throttle, and a bit more juice when the right pedal is squeezed.
I lined up Chris with his silvertop AW many times, both from a standing start and high speed on the straight at Ruapuna where we had the same exit speed from the corner prior. He was blitzed every time :lol:
All the best with the swap!

This was mine complete just hours before being ripped out for the 2zz. Inspiration??:

Image

Actually I still have these custom made pipes for all that intercooler/intake piping and the joiners, and mounts for that model Subaru intercooler ... PM if interested.

Re: Mickeyduck's machines

Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2013 11:55 pm
by mickeyduck
Thanks Mark - inspiration indeed. :mrgreen: Sounds like this is definitely gonna be fun.

Nice work with the water intercooler and plumbing. Though personally I'd have obliterated the "S" word off the intercooler if possible... :lol:

High compression, overboost pulley and an uber-intercooler...? Hmmmm, I wonder if it'd handle the pressure? If it did, it'd sure as hell go...! :twisted:

My T-top has an auto box which is perfect around Auckland traffic and with an overdriven supercharger hitched to it, never fails as a stop-light blitz weapon.

I love the ratios of the auto box - 70kmh in 1st, 140kmh in 2nd and 4 gears all up. With the torque of the supercharger it's brilliant. At 50kmh or 100kmh when you stomp the gas it cuts down one gear and really hauls arse! By contrast the E-51 goes almost nowhere in 1st before you need to change up. Tops out at about 50kmh is all. Though on twisty back-roads I find I spend all day in 2nd and 3rd and it seems to work well there.

I've not driven a C-52 though I do own one (not fitted) so if I ever swap the auto for a manual I'll bear your recommendation in mind. I've heard a few folk say the ratios are better - but in what way? Are they more like the auto box...? What speed can you reach in each gear before the limiter hits?

And do they handle the power as well as an E-51...? They certainly weigh a lot less eh.

Re: Mickeyduck's machines

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 9:52 am
by Benckj
Good read even though I know next to nothing about the AW's. If ony they were a little larger I could fit my 6'5" frame into one.

Re: Mickeyduck's machines

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 3:30 pm
by flying_wedge
I fit my 6'3" frame into one Jim! Still have HEAPS of headroom too. Have you ever tried to sit in one?
And Charlie, the 'S' piping on that intercooler would be better than a 90 degree bend, keep the air speed up and not interrupted.
As for gearbox ratios, perhaps the c52 isn't for you if you like long long ratios. They are shorter than a e51. Which I like a lot more. The 6 speed c60 i have now is even better :)
c52 ratios from memory are 1st till about 55kmh, 2nd to 90kmh, 3rd to 130kmh 4th to 160ish kmh. My memory may be average in remembering this though.
Keeps things much closer together and tight. Easier to keep either a s/c or n/a in their power or torque curves than longer ratios too.

But each to their own.

Re: Mickeyduck's machines

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 10:22 pm
by mickeyduck
OK that's interesting Mark. Sounds like the E-51 is actually a lot like the C-52. At least the speeds you mention there are very similar, within maybe 5kmh or so? Maybe the E-51 gets longer spaced as it gets taller? You are right closer ratios makes it easy to stay in the power curve which is why I like the manual more than the auto on open road twisties. I sit in the 4,000 to 7,000 rpm range almost all the time when driving the manual eh. Even in suburbia. :mrgreen:

But I do like the auto in traffic. On twisty open roads, nah. Spend all day in 2nd, between b.a. and 140kmh... But in suburbia, hell yeah. Bye bye... :twisted:

I think my ideal box would be a manual with 1st going to about 60kmh, 2nd to 110, 3rd to 150, 4th to 180 and 5th to 200. :idea:

Your plumbing is nice mate and the water cooler is a good idea. A well proven mod. Like I said the only thing wrong I can see is the "S" word on it, needs painting out IMHO cos these are Toymotas! But I guess I'm just biased on account of too many Subaru drivers in West Auckland eh... Many of whom seem to think they're with some East LA gang or something. :roll: But we won't go there...

Back on topic then. I'm happy to say that being a short-arse it's no problem at all for me to fit in an AW. There's a plus side to almost anything... :lol: